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COAChSPEAK |EXCERPTS FROM BILL O'BRIEN'S WEEKLY PRESSER Kyle Carter has been ruled out for this week. Is there a chance he could be out for the rest of the season? Could you also evaluate the play of Garry Gilliam? Kyle Carter will be out for the rest of the season. Garry Gilliam is an- other guy – I probably say this so many times [that] you guys are sick of it – but he's another guy that is what Penn State is all about. He's a Pennsylvania guy, a really good stu- dent. He's been through a lot here – both personally and obviously as a team. He's a tough kid, [and] he's an improved player. In all four of the team's losses you have been leading or tied at halftime. Have you seen common issues in the second half of those games. What needs to be better there? I don't know. [That's] probably more of a discussion for after the season. We can do better things [with] coaching, I'm sure. And, you know, I think we've moved the ball in those games but just haven't scored or maybe we turned it over, some- thing like that. So in the off‑season we're going to dive into this thing and scout ourselves and see if we can im- prove, but over the next two weeks we need to make sure we do a better job of coming out after halftime. With Sam Ficken, where do you think he's improved the most from the beginning of the season? He's definitely improved at the placement of his plant foot. He does a nice job. He's much more consis- tent with where his plant foot is on each kick, and there is a lot of credit that you have to give to him because he's really worked at it. You know, when you're kicking better and bet- ter, you're gaining more and more confidence. And he's a very, very laid-back guy that cares about his teammates and wants to do well. It's nice to see him improve like he has. Matt Lehman is a guy who hadn't played very much before the start of the season, and I wondered Tim Owen what you thought about him. Here is a guy that is a run‑on player that was at Shippensburg and came to Penn State. What a story. Learning that [tight end] position is not easy. He's a big tall guy, he's a tough guy, he catches the ball well [and] he runs well for his size. He's become a better and better route-runner all year. He's come up with some big catches for us, and [that's] because of his hard work. [The tight ends] are coached well by John Strollo. John cares about those kids and he's done a nice job with that position and making sure those guys improve every week. When the season ends, the trans- fer/free agency stuff is going to open up again. Have you and your staff thought much about that yet, and how you plan to deal with that situation? I believe that every single day we work very hard on our relationships with our players. We work very hard to put our players in the best posi- tion to play on Saturdays. We work very hard to come up with as good of a practice plan as we can. We care about our players, their families, their class schedules, so that's what we do every single day. Do we have a strategy for whatever that is? I wouldn't say [that] we have a strategy; we just try to go out there with this 2012 team and have open lines of communication. [We coach] N O V E M B E R 1 4 , 2 0 1 2 13 to the best of our ability and coach them to be well‑rounded guys. That's what we do. A lot of students are talking about going home for Thanksgiv- ing break and not coming back for the [final two games]. Are you going to do anything to convince kids to come back? I'm not going to beg anybody to come to the game but I'm going to tell them this: This is a team that has been through unprecedented sit- uations. This is a football team led by a senior class that has had the choice of whether to stay at Penn State or to leave Penn State. And they chose to stay. So as fans, as students, can we choose to not sup- port them in their last two games, eight quarters of football? I don't know. To me, that's what I feel. I think this is a team that's poured its heart and soul into this season. Do you feel at all a need to make a definitive statement on your fu- ture, given the situation and that your name has been floated out there with some different [NFL] teams? I don't read – we're 6‑4. I'm flat- tered that you would ask me that question. I'm worried about Indiana and our Tuesday practice and look- ing forward to doing the best we can for this team as a coaching staff for this Indiana game. B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M SEASON'S REST Freshman tight end Kyle Carter, who dislocated his wrist against Ne- braska last week, "will be out for the rest of the sea- son," said O'Brien.

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